”Conversation is the oral exchange of ideas. Gossip is the idle discussion of the affairs of others. Great people talk about ideas. Ordinary people talk about things. Small people talk about other people.”
This quotation was copied down and given to us after a discussion on the evils of gossip by a dear brother who has since fallen asleep. The truth expressed by these words is powerful. Gossip is a wicked and harmful pastime in which far too many have indulged.

It is so elevating to our own ego and self esteem to catch another in a fault and how we like to dwell upon it! Christ really put a stop to this sort of thing when he said, ”He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.’ None of us are without sin and none of us should talk about the faults of others.

Paul soundly condemns those who are not only idle, but tattlers also, and busybodies, speaking things which they ought not. It is interesting to notice that the tattlers and busybodies are those who are idle. If, they would only go to work doing something constructive, they wouldn’t have time to gossip. This is why great people do not carry tales. We cannot picture Jesus or Paul or Peter bearing tales even if they were true, and sadly we realize that most gossip is greatly distorted.

We know that David was a righteous man who slipped. Do we feel that we would have been justified in telling on the King of Israel if we had known his sin? Isn’t it our duty to follow Christ’s command and ”go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone?” Usually we find that when we do this, things are not as we at first imagined and how fortunate that the truth was learned before serious harm was done.

It is possible to start a fire we cannot put out. One little match can start a fire that consumes a whole forest. James compares our tongue to a fire saying, ”The tongue is a little member and boasteth great things. Behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body.”
The real test is not only ”Is it true?” for some true things should not be told. It must meet all the tests of Paul before being repeated. Of course it must be true but also it must be honest, just, pure, lovely and of good report. The Golden Rule should apply every bit as much in the things we say as in the things we do.

There are some who are going to be kept out of the kingdom just because they talked too much. This comes on the authority of Christ himself who said, ”I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.”
”May the words of my mouth be acceptable in thy sight, 0 Lord”my strength and my redeemer.” Psalm 19-14